The Errol Flynn Blog

My honor, Your Highness!

This actually has an extra interesting twist of history, Claudia, because Queen Elizabeth I and the Roman Catholic Church (perhaps most notably the Spanish Church) were notorious arch enemies. In The Sea Hawk (with Flora Robson as QE 1, of course) Elizabethan-era Spain not-so-subtly substituting for Nazi Germany, with an apparent insinuation of analogy also between WW II’s swastika and the Philip II’s Order of the Golden Fleece.

Here’s Errol in a Nazi, I mean Spanish, court:

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Queen Elizabeth’s rousing anti-Hitler, I mean anti- Philip II, speech closing The Sea Hawk:

And now, my loyal subjects, a grave duty confronts us all: To prepare our nation for a war that none of us wants, least of all your queen. We have tried by all means in our power to avert this war. We have no quarrel with the people of Spain or of any other country; but when the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world, it becomes the solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men, and that freedom is the deed and title to the soil on which we exist. Firm in this faith, we shall now make ready to meet the great armada that Philip sends against us. To this end, I pledge you ships – ships worthy of our seamen – a mighty fleet, hewn out of the forests of England; a navy foremost in the world – not only in our time, but for generations to come.

Carl Pitt : [leading a cheer] To England, and the Queen!